How many hours you'd have to work earning minimum wage to rent an apartment in every state

Demonstrators gather in
front of a McDonald's restaurant to call for an increase in
minimum wage on April 15, 2015 in Chicago,
Illinois.Scott Olson / Getty
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The US isn't known for its generous minimum wage.

On a federal level, the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. State by
state, however, the hourly rate
ranges from $9.05 per hour in Washington, DC, to
$5.15 an hour in Georgia and Wyoming (where they have to use the
federal rate).

Even in the more generous states, minimum wage doesn't translate
to a lot of purchasing power. The
National Low Income Housing Coalition illustrates exactly how
difficult it is to get by on so little in the map below, which
calculates how many hours of working at minimum wage it would
take to rent an apartment in each state.

The Coalition found that in no state can a worker earning minimum
wage and working a 40-hour week afford a one-bedroom rental
without spending more than 30% of their income, the percentage
typically used to indicate affordability.

In states like California, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia,
workers would have to put in over 90 hours a week.

The report, "Out
of Reach 2015" concludes that in order to afford a
one-bedroom apartment working a 40-hour week, a renter would need
to earn $15.50 an hour, higher than any state's minimum wage. To
afford two bedrooms, that renter would have to be paid $19.50.